I hope to get a couple, obviously not for a while. I hope that I can get one on the first batch to mess around with/XBMC, then one for a retro jukebox refit, possibly one for my car, and I'll see if I can use one for my dissertation(depends on if someone figures out how to use the GPU for some matrix multiplication.

Of course every time an article talks about the pi, I cry as my chances of getting in on the first batch becomes nonexistent.

I am looking forward to picking up one of these to play with. I am happy that it comes as a abare board, but I am also wondering what sort of case arrangement will make sense for it. You would want something that gives you access to all the connectors, but if you make it too small I have to think that cooling, or at least airflow, will be an issue.

I'm planning to pick one up and have a play with some lightweight desktop environments, XBMC etc. As far as cases go, I'm thinking a tupperware box with holes drilled in it for ports and airflow, with the board fixed down with hot glue

I was thinking of using a case similar to a hollow book. You can find them at local shops like a Marshalls or TJ Max type of place, for about half the cost of the one listed below. Could be neat to utilize the open book cover to work on the device, and dremel out some holes for the ports on the back side.

I am looking forward to picking up one of these to play with. I am happy that it comes as a abare board, but I am also wondering what sort of case arrangement will make sense for it. You would want something that gives you access to all the connectors, but if you make it too small I have to think that cooling, or at least airflow, will be an issue.

IIRC, the general consensus is that cooling won't be a problem. Its pretty much a smart phone with Ethernet and 2 full sized USB ports. A case made of chocolate might be a bad idea, but people were disappointed that they wouldn't be able to make a lava lamp computer with the pi as the heat source. I personally was hoping to use an altoids container, but with the ports, it will be too tall to close the lid.

I'm hoping to get one of the first batch so's I can dick around with it. It'll probably be hooked up to our 720p TV via the HDMI, if everything works. My first case will be Lego. Fedora is probably going to be the first distro I try, but we'll see what the state of officially endorsed OSes is when it launches. Using it as a tiny media player sounds just about ideal after I've had my fun.

I was thinking of using a case similar to a hollow book. You can find them at local shops like a Marshalls or TJ Max type of place, for about half the cost of the one listed below. Could be neat to utilize the open book cover to work on the device, and dremel out some holes for the ports on the back side.

Well aren't the Raspberry Pi dimensions suppose to be Altoid tin size?

Because of the corners, they don't fit into one. You can source your own tins online, but they'll probably be more expensive than buying some Altoids. I'm sure there are also some project boxes that'll fit the board and a few extras (bluetooth dongle, etc.) inside. Of course y'all can do like me and go crazy with the Lego. I've already got a few roughs built up based on a piece of index card cut and folded to the dimensions of the board shown on their website.Wish I still had some of the Magnetron pieces so's I could give it magnetic feet to stick on the back of my TV.I want my Raspberry Pi now.My original idea was to use a powered USB hub as both the power supply and port expansion, but looking again at the specs I don't think that'll be feasible. It needs 5V @ 1A to run, and most hubs don't put out that much current for any one port.

The smaller Raspberry Pi needs 500 mA, the larger needs 700 mA - Remember these are maximums. Both are certainly do-able by a powered USB hub.

Those are for the bare boards without any connected devices, though. Any wireless dongle, mouse, keyboard, etc. will need more power. The plan was to leave one of the 2 ports free for either wireless or storage attachments, and I'd like those to be full-speed instead of sharing bandwidth with everything else on a hub. USB is already slow enough! I'm hoping for a B board, but having trouble actually finding a hub that can supply 700mA. USB 3.0 is supposed to provide this at least amount per port, but would that work over a 2.0 Standard-A to micro-B* cable from the hub? I'll have to check the Raspi forums to see if something has been established. Another idea: y-cable with a micro-B on one end, sacrificing another port on the hub for extra power. Unfortunately Monoprice doesn't seem to carry them so they're exorbitantly priced at *gasp* more than a dollar! Plus that's even more cabling to deal with/hide.

*USB 3.0's micro-b connector is different from the same designation on USB 2.0 devices. 2.0's Standad-A is supposed to work with USB 3.0 ports for backwards-compatibility purposes, though.

I'm thinking about getting one and running RISC OS on it. There is project to get it up and running using the RISC OS Open variant. RISC OS was the OS I was using in the mid-1990s, a time that I always look back on with affection (when I actually enjoyed computers). I doubt if I'll do much serious work on it, it's more for having fun and reliving the past.

I'm gonna use one to drive the display in my pinball machine, it will also be the pinball brains, running a Lua state machine I've created to control the whole machine talking an rs485 network to all the support boards.

The plan was to leave one of the 2 ports free for either wireless or storage attachments, and I'd like those to be full-speed instead of sharing bandwidth with everything else on a hub. USB is already slow enough!

You'll still be sharing your USB bandwidth with everything else including the wired Ethernet. There's only a single USB interface with a hub to serve the LAN and the two USB ports.

So I've read. Durn! They're getting their servers, mirrors, and torrents geared up to serve out the Fedora respin for it. Unfortunately that respin is going to be a few days delayed. Still, launch can't be far away now. I just hope I can check my email early enough in the morning to have a fighting chance at putting in an order.

Lego hasn't been off-beat enough of a case material for me. I dusted off a box of Super Sculpey polymer clay that'd been weighing down papers on my desk for a few years now. Theory: It should be easy to roll out a sheet of polymer clay, drape it over a deck of cards or something, cut out some slots for the ports and bake up a discrete, paintable shell. Could be the easy way to make something with more potential for capital-D Design than typical project boxes, without the expense of 3D printing or the tool shed necessary to cut acrylic. Since this is essentially plastic you mold like clay and harden in a toaster oven, it almost seemed ideal for one-off shells in odd shapes. After a little experimentation, it is possible to make suitably flat sheets of the stuff, cut out panels, and assemble them into light-weight boxes or cases, even water-tight. But getting a clean look with it is beyond my non-sculptor skills for now. The Super Sculpey formula is a little brittle when hardened and doesn't have much give (still more than ceramic), but there's a formulation that is supposed to turn out rubbery and flexible. I happen to have a few bits of that was thinking that custom "rubberized" corners or skins could be made with the stuff, or mixed with the basic SS to increase durability.

I've seen posts in the forums talking about using the onboard digital video interface (not HDMI, the raw panel interface) to hook up to a touch screen and enable various kinds of projects. I honestly think the easiest way to control it would be to have a webserver over a WiFi network in your car, and use a smartphone to control mpd or something.

It should be pointed out that the RP is designed to enable "interesting projects" for educational purposes, rather than being a cheap media centre / carputer / whatever (although it could certainly be put to those uses for the sufficiently determined). In the medium term, I think it likely that a library of interesting projects with an RP at their core will grow up, but if you're after something like this int he short term, a second hand head unit with SD card compatibility is almost certainly a lot less hassle all round.

There is an XBMC focused distro that is designed to run on the RP (http://www.raspbmc.com/) so it might be possible to whack that in some sort of case with power, an audio out and a WiFi dongle and be off to the races.

The RPi people apparently chose these two distributors because of their "global" reach and distribution networks... seems that they were misled, because neither company is offering preorders from any of their regional sites (just their UK-based sites).

I just "express[ed] an interest in Raspberry Pi" at RS Components, and am assuming that means I'm on a list or something?* Even that site would occasionally sputter and stop responding under the strain. Haven't been able to connected to the Premier Farnell site since the announcement. Element14 has a shop for the pi set up, but they're not taking orders yet.

* [edit] Or not, as the Twitter link may indicate. Dammit, I want this thing for totally selfish reasons. IS THAT SO WRONG?

yeah this global distribution has been a total ballsup. one site is taking names, the other site is not even selling them in the usa. Its been interesting to watch. I didnt need one right away so didnt get up at 1am EST for the announcement. Hopefully when I'm at that point in my build they will be more freely available.

Did anyone on ars have a confirmed purchase? or just an expressed interest?

Element14 is taking interest-registering now, at least, but their initial batch was sold out. Rumors about every level of the problem are flying around and I don't really think it'll help to repeat them here. Suffice it to say we'll probably have to wait until the second round of production gears up.

I got a Qty 1 preorder in with Farnell Export before they stopped taking them, an a Qty 3 in with Newark (the US Farnell distributor that for some reason isn't listed on the Farnell "click a country" site!).

I have a few plans for this-Thermal/vacuum testing to see if it could survive in space-Build into the inside of a Model M Terminal 122 key keyboard as a retro keyboard-computer-Learn Python